


The Fanfiction Ending

by CaptainJZH



Category: The Stanley Parable
Genre: Breaking the Fourth Wall, Gen, I'll Just Leave it at That, mindfuckery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-08
Updated: 2019-06-08
Packaged: 2020-04-23 01:14:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,219
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19140622
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaptainJZH/pseuds/CaptainJZH
Summary: The Narrator cares about Stanley.Stanley wants to escape.The Writer makes sure they escape together.





	The Fanfiction Ending

“All of his co-workers were gone. What could it mean? Stanley decided to go to the meeting room; perhaps he had simply missed a memo.”

 

Stanley knew this part oh-so-well. He had done it so many times. The Narrator would tell him to go to the door on his left, then he would tell him to go upstairs to his boss’s office, where he would “inexplicably” know the code 2-8-4-5, leading him to the Mind Control Facility, where he was supposed to press the “Off” button and be set free.

 

Rinse.

And.

Repeat.

 

But Stanley knew he would never be free. This much was true. Sometimes, he would travel down the long dark corridor that led to his apparent “death,” where he would hear a Female Narrator tell him (or rather, the person controlling him) that he would restart back in his office regardless of what the standard Narrator said was going to happen to him.

 

He knew from that Museum that he was simply a character in a video game, being controlled by a “player.” In fact, there were times the Narrator would address this so-called “Real Person” instead of him.

 

_ “What did the Narrator think he was going to accomplish?” _

 

Those words repeated in his mind as he sat at his desk, making him ponder. Could he really escape? The “Freedom Ending” hardly meant true freedom, since he would just end up here again. The “Escape Pod Ending” was closer, but he knew from a sign that it would only work if both Stanley  _ and  _ the Narrator were present. And the very trick required to get there  _ disabled  _ the Narrator. It was all quite frustrating for Stanley.

 

Then Stanley had an idea.

 

He knew for a fact that the Narrator — at least in his own mind — wrote this whole elaborate story for him (He had gotten mad at Stanley on more than one occasion for deviating from it). The only problem was, the story kept repeating. There was no way to stop it from repeating, endlessly landing him back at the start. And the worst part was, only the Female Narrator — apparently the Narrator’s narrator — seemed to know this.

 

And so Stanley realized what he had to do: He had to inform the Narrator of this somehow, tell him about the Escape Pod Ending, then  _ get him there  _ so they could both escape. Well, preferably it would be just him, but for some reason the game required they both be present.

 

And he had to formulate all this in the brief few seconds he had from when he the game restarted, and the Narrator noticed that he was just standing there. Luckily for Stanley, he was in a fanfic, being written solely for the purpose of providing narrative conclusion to a game whose partial purpose is to have a complete lack of conclusion.

 

This Stanley did not know, but it would prove crucial to his success, since it allowed him to speak. To actually  _ speak.  _ No need for a voice actor who would contradict the player’s goals and desires. No, the writer could give Stanley exactly what he wanted. 

 

With a few obstacles along the way, of course.

 

“Hello?” Stanley asked aloud, the first time he had truly spoken to anyone since this ordeal began.

 

The Narrator spoke in return. “Hello, Stanley asked aloud, hoping that someone would hear him, anyone, anyone who could help him in his dire time of need. But alas, his coworkers were still gone, and no amount of babbling to the nothingness was going to bring them back.”

 

Stanley took a sharp breath, and spoke again. “Narrator, please, stop this.”

 

“Stanley began pleading with the voice in his own head, obviously going crazy.”

 

“No, I know you exist, and I know that I’m trapped in...this. This ‘game’ or whatever the Hell it is.” Stanley sat back down in his chair, defeated. “Maybe it is Hell. And you’re the Devil.”

 

“Stanley began insulting the Universe itself, which had been so kind to him, so nurturing. He really should have learned better manners.”

 

“Dammit, why won’t you listen to me? Do I have to do something wrong for you to actually address me like a person? Or no, am I just being controlled by someone else? And when you realize that, you’ll just restart the game like you always do.”

 

“Stanley was being stupid, not following the story that I had laid out for him so thoroughly.”

 

“We’ve been through this bloody story of yours twenty billion fucking times!” Stanley snapped.

 

“Ah, I see. You’re not Stanley. You’re a real person.”

 

_ “No!”  _ Stanley shouted, throwing his chair down the hall. “No matter what I do, no matter how many times I go through this, I still end up back here. Can’t I just...be free?”

 

“Well I don’t know who you think you are, but this isn’t how the Stanley I know acts.”

 

“You’re still not listening to me!” Stanley shouted, getting up in a huff. “You know what? I can do this without you.”

 

This was a bald-faced lie. Convincing the Narrator was key to his plan. Without him, the Escape Pod Ending wouldn’t work, and he would just end up here. Luckily for Stanley, he still had an ally on his side: The Writer. The Writer would ensure that this new story — created to be entirely independent of the official Stanley Parable story — would not be so unendingly cruel to Stanley, and would instead grant him a linear narrative written out on a page. He deserved this much.

 

Stanley was marching out of his office (pointedly looking at Room 428, which he remembered was the way to the Escape Pod) when he noticed a man that looked much like him, walking through one of the service corridors behind Room 425. He had seen him on occasion, but those times he was

 

“Hey!” Stanley cried out, catching the man’s attention.

 

The man looked over at Stanley, and Stanley finally recognized him as Employee 432. He had heard mutterings about him back when he had coworkers, but they’d only exchanged glances and occasionally (silently) complimented the other’s work clothes of the day, which invariably always matched.

 

“Uh, yes?” 432 asked, opening the doors and stepping through. Stanley couldn’t believe it; he was staring at an actual person again! No more mannequins, or voices, or answering machine messages.

 

“Can you show me the way out? I’m… I’m afraid I’ve lost my way.”

 

“Oh, sure!” 432 obliged. “427, right?”

 

“Yeah… 432?”

 

“Not anymore; got fired today by the Boss.”

 

_ “That’s why he’s still here,”  _ Stanley thought,  _ “When the Narrator deleted everyone, he only deleted employees…” _

 

“No, no, no,” the Narrator interrupted, “This is  _ completely  _ off-track. You haven’t even gotten to the doors and you’re already messing with my story.”

 

“C’mon!” Stanley said, grabbing 432’s hand and running through the doors as they shut behind them. They fled down the corridor, attempting to outrun the Narrator.

 

“You shouldn’t be able to do that! Something has gone horribly wrong Stanley. That man may or may not be Employee 432, but I know for a fact that he’s just a lazy copy-and-paste of your character model, placed in a random walk-cycle through an inaccessible area for God-knows-what-reason.”

 

“What’s he talking about?” 432 asked, helpless.

 

“In fact, why don’t I just access the game’s developer controls, and delete 432 from existence? That’ll show you!”

 

In that moment, however, the Writer overruled the supposedly almighty Narrator, and revealed that since this was a written narrative rather than a video game, he had just as much control as Stanley.

 

“Wait, it didn’t work. That idiot is still here.”

 

“Hey!” 432 defended, not quite sure how to react to all this.

 

“Well, it’s difficult to even call him that. He barely has any character at all. If I recall the game’s info manuals listed his description has ‘No Information Available.’ Why is he even here? Whoever’s making up this sequence of events probably just needed another character to add into the story in a plausible manner, and didn’t think about how to write him. Who’s he going to add next? Mariella? Stanley’s Wife? Oh this I have to see.”

 

It was at this moment that the Writer, called out on his (still impeccable and highly respected) creative tactics, tragically killed Employee 432 — who may or may not have existed at all — by, uh… dropping a loose lighting fixture on his head! Yes! He didn’t serve any purpose anyway other than to get Stanley out of the traditional office layout and allow the Writer to forge his own path, without having to worry about continuity with the original game.

 

Anyhow, Stanley walked briskly down the corridor, before coming to a long staircase. The Narrator tried to tell him to return to the Office, but Stanley refused to listen. The Narrator wouldn’t listen to him, then he wouldn’t listen to the Narrator. Simple as that.

 

He went up the stairs — he knew it would be a roll of the dice as to whether going up or down was the best option, but he had a hunch that Floor 760, the location of the of the Escape Pod, was his destination — and found that they were seemingly endless. Keyword: Seemingly.

 

After a long, long ascension up the staircase, he found a hallway with two signs, each pointing in an opposite direction. One read “Escape Pod” and pointed to the right, and the other read “Narration Room: RESTRICTED.” Was it really going to be this easy? Had he actually  _ found  _ the Narrator?

 

“Wait, wait, hold on a minute. Stanley, this is absolutely not possible. I mean it this time. This area shouldn’t even exist. There’s nothing here in the Game Design about… Oh no. I’ve figured it out. This isn’t the acclaimed game ‘The Stanley Parable,’ nominated for so many 2013 game awards and philosophical darling of the ages. This is some bloke’s fanfiction about ‘The Stanley Parable,’ being written haphazardly and without any respect for the original canon.”

 

It was at this point that the Narrator was becoming quite rude. How little he knew. The Writer controlled everything. The Writer could do whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted, however he wanted. And it was at this moment, that the Writer decided to do something delightfully devilish to the Narrator. Not to make him suffer, no, but to make him happy. Just in the most self-indulgent way he could think of. It would make Stanley happy too, this much he knew, because Stanley and the Narrator would not only achieve their goals of escaping the neverending endings of the former’s titular “Parable,” but they would become aware of their love for one another, and their bond would become inseparable, even in the supposed “Real World” (even if it was just a construct created by the Writer the purposes of satisfactory conclusion).

 

That’s right, Narrator, this just became  _ SlashFiction. _

 

“Oh, oh no, you can’t be serious. This is highly irregular. I demand that this stop immediately before you get your jollies off on me and Stanley...doing whatever. I don’t know. Doing gay stuff. I don’t care.”

 

Ah, but this is G-rated fluff, Narrator. I’m going to make you and Stanley the greatest gaming ship since Chell and GLaDOS!

 

“Well… I won’t have it!”

 

Come on, you care about Stanley, don’t you?

 

“Yes… I suppose…”

 

And don’t you want him to have a pleasant life? Free from this prison of desks and hallways? With  _ you? _

 

“Well yeah, but—”

 

But nothing. Congratulations, Narrator, you have a boyfriend. His name is Stanley. The Escape Pod is down the hall, and you can be happy together. Enjoy.

 

The Narrator sat in his recording room, silent for some time. Did really he have feelings for Stanley? Or was it simply because the Writer was telling him that he did? Did that invalidate his feelings? The Narrator didn’t care anymore. He thought about what Stanley had said, about the game repeating over and over, and them doing this countless times before.

 

“Perhaps Stanley was right…” the Narrator finally said to himself. “Perhaps… It’s time for us to leave.”

 

The door opened, revealing Stanley, a determined look on his face. “You’re coming with me.” He stared at the Narrator, now with a human body of flesh and blood. He had a nice, clean-shaven face with a wide jawline, his eyes blue and his hair blonde.

 

“I…” the Narrator began, “I’m sorry, Stanley. For not listening to you. And keeping you going throughout this nightmarish maze of an office building. I hope that you can...forgive me. And to show my good faith, I’m going to help you escape.”

 

And then Stanley smiled, for what felt like the first time in forever. He took the Narrator’s hand, guiding him down the hall to the Escape Pod. They both entered it, 

 

_ “Are you sure this is what you want?”  _ the Female Narrator remarked, startling the two as they sat in the pod, nuzzled close together. Stanley and the Narrator looked at each other, thinking about the road that lay ahead. Would they really be free? Regardless, they were together, finally able to achieve that which they both desired. They nodded, and the Escape Pod launched off, headed for stories unknown.

 

And the Narrator was happy.


End file.
